Mangalyaan crosses Moon's orbit; travelling 10-lakh km a day

Indian Space Research Organisation’s Mars Orbiter, which was placed in inter-Mars trajectory in the early hours on Sunday, has crossed Moon's orbit and is travelling beyond Earth's natural satellite.

"The Mars Orbiter spacecraft has crossed the Moon orbit. So technically after crossing our Chandrayaan's orbit, it is now travelling beyond the Moon. It is crossing around 10,00,000 km per day," ISRO sources told PTI.

This is the first time an Indian-made object is being sent into deep space, they said.

ISRO's Mars Orbiter mission had ventured out of Earth's sphere of influence on Sunday, beginning its 300-day journey to the red planet, marking a major milestone in India's space history.

ISRO performed the trans-Mars injection, a "crucial event" intended to hurl its Mars Orbiter spacecraft into the planned orbit around the sun, at around 12.49 am on Sunday. It has planned four mid-course corrections in case of any deviation along its path to the Martian orbit before its expected arrival in the orbit of the red planet in September 2014. It had performed five orbit-raising manoeuvres on its Mars Orbiter, raising the Apogee (farthest point from Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km before it performed the "mother of all slingshots."

The spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore with support from the Indian Deep Space Network antennae at Byalalu in Chennai.

ISRO's PSLV C 25 injected the 1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter into the orbit around Earth about 44 minutes after launch at 2.38 pm from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs 450-crore mission.